State of the Blog pt 2.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang.

My fellow blog readers,

As you may know, my dear Frankenstein build died in August. I've been phoning it in, quite literally. Using my smart phone for all business, including applying for a mortgage (that's some crazy shit, right?) Unfortunately, the blogger interface on my phone sucks, something fierce, so it was too much work. Rockband, d&d and trying to buy a house have all killed my motivation.

That said... I have FINALLY fixed this shit. The amazing users on reddit were able to identify and help me troubleshoot exactly which part was broken. And let me tell you about it - I originally went to /r/buildAPCForMe and they helped me get something put together. I upgraded the power source (gold certified instead of bronze) and the video card (bumped it up one model nicer.) It worked fine for a while but then just died.

I asked for some help, did some research, RMAd my CPU (2x), motherboard (1x) and my video card (1x)I bought a second copy of the same model of Motherboard, just in case.

A guy in /r/3dprinting posted something about that feeling when your DIY project just wont work. I commiserated and talked about my issues. The guys there walked me through every step and diagnosed it as "It has to be the motherboard."

I had a real Luke Skywalker moment. However, after about a month, and stressing about money for something called "Earnest Money" and paying for inspections and appraisals, I finally found the space to budget for a new motherboard. I upgraded my build from a msi b350-m gaming model to an Asus b350-f gaming model. It came in the mail this morning, but I was on my way to look at a couple houses, so I didnt have time to install it.

My first block of time to install it was at lunch. I only had an hour and the mobo was new, so I didnt have time to test it. It was a real schroedinger's computer. I installed a new mobo, but i could pretend it was working until i turned it on and proved it wasn't.

Lo and behold. I turned it on and it worked. And all my software was in the same state I left it in.. so now I am up, watching it, scared it wont turn back on.

OH! I wanna test my terraria.. the old mobo/graphics card would get all messed up and freeze during the storm event.

Building a computer... And you can too!

We've had some down time in our other gaming endeavors and Terraria just released a huge patch Lately when I run anything on my old alienware (2009) it sounds like it might die, and is pretty laggy.

I decided i needed a new computer and both BF and Brother told me I need to build it. I was on the edge of annoyed and flattered.. and maybe apprehensive. I just want it, I want it quickly, and I don't want to worry about the fact that I built it so it might be shitty.

Unfortunately the best advice was just "you can build a computer for half the price" and they know I love saving money. I don't really know a lot about parts. What parts do I want/need, which will be best for my computer usage? Reddit has an amazing community, a series of subreddits devoted to building your own computer and joining the PC MasterRace (vs mac, or gaming systems)

I personally perused the /BuildaPC for a while and then /BuildaPCForMe. This second community is convenient and the main basis for my computer build.

They have a template to fill out where you document what programs you use a lot, what games you play, any weird things like "I like having USB plugins on the front panel" or "I have a dvd drive I am going to add" or "I need convenient support for two monitors" (all things I listed) and you add a budget. Mine was $600 (I didn't *think* I needed the OS, I was going to use my copy of Windows 7, but I'll get to that) I also knew I had a little leeway in case I decided to upgrade here and there.

My original answer came in from /u/HAThating101

CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor	$188.88 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	MSI B350M GAMING PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$78.88 @ OutletPC
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory	$55.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Kingston SSDNow UV400 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$42.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Gigabyte Radeon RX 570 4GB Gaming 4G Video Card	$168.99 @ SuperBiiz
Case	BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case	$26.99 @ NCIX US
Power Supply	EVGA 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$20.98 @ Newegg
Wireless Network Adapter	TP-Link TL-WN781ND PCI-Express x1 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter	$12.89 @ OutletPC
Case Fan	Kingwin CFY-012LB 40.0 CFM 120mm Fan	$2.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$609.58
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$599.58

I made a couple changes - I bought my case from Amazon, it was $10 more expensive, but I saved $15 in shipping. Super Biz didn't have my video card, so I added it for an extra couple dollars from Newegg. (however, again I probably saved the shipping amount) I actually decided to go with an rx580 instead of the 570. it was $30 more and a higher processing power.

Anyway long story short, i bought those pieces and put them  together in the right order.

Short story long: wtf.


Heads up, AMD Processors don't support installing Windows 7.  It shuts down USB support when trying to install the OS. Drop $100 on Win 10, USB For days.

The best option was to get an adapter  Nope, wait.  Your keyboard will only work with the ps2 adapter if your keyboard originally was wired to connect by ps2. So unless your keyboard is already USB but came with a ps2 converter the adapter won't work!

The OTHER option was to get an old school ps2 keyboard for one use. Cool cool cool cool.  What do you mean amazon only has them for $75+?

So I ran my ass down to BestBuy and bought Windows 10.

I also ran into some issues with using the wrong screws, so my motherboard had too much give (like i guess it should have enough give so it doesn't snap, but not enough to ever wiggle or touch anything it shouldn't be touching)

So every time I did anything, like plug things in, my video card would turn off. I don't want to use the word short out, because that still scares me.

I took everything out and balanced out the screws. spent like a day installing drivers and thinking i got the most updated one.

I am pretty sure i'm all set.

The only thing messed up now is Terraria has a glitch in which my character freezes but the world around me keeps gong, and i can see everything going. ALL MY DRIVERS are updated.  Why!?!

We spent all the free time for a week or two playing Terraria. whenever the snow storm event (world storm event) if I am in the snow biome, my character just sits there. No one can hit me, I can't move.. for 15-20 minutes.

but it will unfreeze eventually. When I was hosting the server it sucked, because i couldn't just log out and come back, or else we lost any progress, and sometimes the loot, if we had recently put anything in inventory. So I would have to wait it out. When Brother started hosting, I could just alt-f4 and gtfo.

We finished all the bosses in Terraria and now I'm using the computer to update my character sheets and maybe start some campaign notes on my wannabe campaign.